InClassica: Childhood Memories to Beethoven

9 Feb 2024 | 20:00 | Dubai Opera, UAE

Alexey Shor Childhood Memories
Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92

Zee Zee piano
Nabil Shehata conductor

One of the most exciting and electrifying pianists of our generation, Zee Zee (Hong Kong/USA) is a founding member of the acclaimed Z.E.N. Trio, Founder and Artistic Director of the Z+ international music festival, prizewinner at the 2013 Queen Elisabeth Competition, and winner of the Petschek Piano Award, the Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition, and the Krainev International Piano Competition. Joined by the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, who will be performing under the baton of German conductor Nabil Shehata, Zee Zee shall present Composer-in-Residence Alexey Shor’s Suite for piano and orchestra No. 3, ‘Childhood Memories’, an intimate work in nine evocative movements which is inspired by the composer’s own youth, loosely tracing the path from early childhood and bringing Shor’s experiences of these formative years to life. Ludwig van Beethoven’s majestic Symphony No. 7 shall then follow, first premiered in Vienna on the 8th of December 1813. Written in the shadow of the Napoleonic wars, the work is often regarded as a musical confrontation of sorts, as Europe struggled to free itself from French domination.